They only just finished filming all the reshoots in November. It’s crazy. The are course correcting so much of it from the Lord-Miller version, which was shitcanned after it was finished… it’s wild.
Michael K Williams filmed a full role and when he wasn’t available for the reshoots they fucking replace him with Paul Bettany.
On first viewing, when it was first revealed their ship was being tracked, I thought “Hello, there’s a mole onboard who has planted a tracking beacon.” So, with that in mind, Holdo was quite within her rights not to divulge her plan to anyone she either doesn’t trust or whom is below her in rank. Loose lips and all that (this point still holds up, of course).
As the film continued, I thought we were being set-up for a lazy “OMG, Holdo is working for the First Order!” switch as she’s just burning fuel, powering up defenceless escape pods, keeping schtum etc. Thankfully that didn’t happen but, within the film itself, Holdo might also of thought there was a turncoat onboard thus making her play her cards close to her chest.
Both these things still play out over repeated viewings and made me appreciate her role more. Rian Johnson toyed with us and the pay-off was a heroic Holdo doing the hyperspace smash - lovely!
It’s specifically attacking a particular sort of negativity towards the film steeped in “This hasn’t happened before therefore it needs to be justified” despite all the films really doing this but the earlier ones are accepted.
This is quite a reductive view of literature here, even if we are talking about blockbuster cinema BUT I appreciate not everyone wants the same thing and while I agree these films don’t need to exist, they do, so we might as well see how the last one goes eh?